Hundreds dead in Sierra Leone mudslide

FREETOWN: At least 312 people were killed and more than 2,000 left homeless yesterday when heavy flooding hit Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown, leaving morgues overflowing and residents desperately searching for loved ones.

“It is likely that hundreds are lying dead underneath the rubble,” Vice President Victor Foh told reporters at the scene of the mudslide in the mountain town of Regent, adding that a number of illegal buildings had been erected in the area.

“The disaster is so serious that I myself feel broken,” he added. “We’re trying to cordon (off) the area (and) evacuate the people.”

Red Cross spokesman Patrick Massaquoi said the death toll was 312 but could rise further as his team continued to survey disaster areas in Freetown and tally the number of dead.

Mohamed Sinneh, a morgue technician at Freetown’s Connaught Hospital, said 180 bodies had been received so far at his facility alone, many of them children, leaving no space to lay what he described as the “overwhelming number of dead”.

Many more bodies were taken to private morgues, Sinneh said.

Images obtained by AFP showed a ferocious churning of dark orange mud coursing down a steep street in the capital, while videos posted by local residents showed people waist and chest deep in water trying to traverse the road.

Fatmata Sesay, who lives on the hilltop area of Juba, said she, her three children and husband were awoken at 4: 30 am by rain beating down on the mud house they occupy, which was by then submerged by water.

She managed to escape by climbing onto the roof.

“We have lost everything and we do not have a place to sleep,” she told AFP.

Local media reports said a section of a hill in the Regent area of the city had partially collapsed, exacerbating the disaster.

Other images showed battered corpses piled on top of each other, as residents struggled to cope with the destruction.

Disaster management official Candy Rogers said that “over 2,000 people are homeless,” hinting at the huge humanitarian effort that will be required to deal with the fallout of the flooding in one of Africa’s poorest nations. — AFP

Heavy rain caused a section of the hill in Region to collapse. – Society 4 Climate Change Communication Sierra Leone/ AFP photos

Cars submerged in muddy water in streets in Regent.

Houses were left submerged in mud after a night of heavy rain that saw a hillside in the Regent area collapse.

Scene of devastation on a hillside community near Freetown.